Tag Archives: maple syrup

Helen’s Restaurant – Concord, MA

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Helen’s Restaurant – no website, goes to Yelp! page.

I grew up in Concord, and still remember when this place was Brigham’s.  Alas, there is but one Brigham’s left – the original in Arlington, MA.  Helen’s replaced Brigham’s a while back, and makes some very tasty food.  I also can’t speak highly enough about their raspberry lime rickies, the very first carbonated beverage I actually liked.

Okay, enough fucking nostalgia.  On to the brunch!

 

The food was so good I forgot to take pictures before I started eating.

The food was so good I forgot to take pictures before I started eating.

 

I was out with Talls and a friend, and if one of them hadn’t reminded me I wouldn’t have even snapped these photos.  The blueberry pancakes were lovely, as was my requisite real maple syrup.  I also enjoyed my bacon, which was thicker than other places and still wonderfully crunchy.

The homefries were gigantic and wonderful.

The home fries were gigantic and wonderful.

The plates were huge and so were the portions.  The coffee is very much diner coffee, which I more than enjoyed.  Talls, the non-coffee citrus connoisseur, reported that the orange juice was delicious.

Seriously forgot to snap pictures.

Seriously forgot to snap pictures.

Key things to note:

  • This place gets busy fast when the local churches let out, so basically after 11 it’s a mad house on Sundays.  If you’re willing to wait you’ll be well taken care of – the waitresses are all pros who know how to make a packed house run smooth.
  • Many families with small children means it can get loud and kid-like.  I’ve never had a problem with this, but if kids around at all isn’t your thing this place may not work for you.
  • This place is CASH ONLY.  There are plenty of ATMs walkably nearby in town.

If you’re in the area to Walden Pond or North Bridge it and it’s brunch time, hit this place up for some great down home dinner food.

 

The Ball Square Cafe – Somerville, MA

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Ball Square Cafe

Holy fuck there are lines at this place.  There are so often lines there were fucking heaters in the awning above our line.  The coffee is self serve even when you sit down partially to let line-standers drink coffee while they wait.  If you hate lines this is not the brunch for you.  On the plus side: this place has heaters and coffee for you when you stand in line, so as waiting outside for a table at a brunch place goes, it’s pretty damn comfortable.  My little party of three waited for about 20 minutes for a table at 10:45am on a Sunday.  We were attempting to arrive early to skip the wait when we did this, and were clearly utter fools.  Ah well.  Ball Square Cafe is small, but they apparently own a deli next door that was being used only for overflow seating when we went.

Seriously though, coffee in line!

Seriously though, coffee in line!

I didn’t mind the line too much with my purple marshmallow coat, coffee, and lovely people to chat with.  The wait also gave us time to decide what we were all going to have before we sat down, so we got our food pretty quickly.  Our waitress was awesome and memorized my order when I told it to my friends so they could order for me while I ran to get a coffee refill.

I, as I am sure you are shocked to hear, went for the french toast.  A pear and goat cheese french toast, to be exact.  They have many delicious-sounding options, but I’ve never heard of a stuffing quite like this.  The slices were ginormous and I only finished two of them.  I completed the delicious meal with real maple syrup and bacon.

Those white lumps are Cool Whip. :( Not my store-bought whipped cream of choice.

Those white lumps are Cool Whip. 😦 Not my store-bought whipped cream of choice.

My friends had the Eggs Benedict with Hash and the Caramelized Banana with Walnuts Belgian Waffle, which I sampled and were both lovely.  Their eyes were a better size in comparison to their stomachs, so they were able to finish their meals.  I, on the other hand, got to take my last slice home in an adorable container and relive this glorious experience as part of lunch on Monday.

So many noms, you guys.

So many noms, you guys.

I recommend this place unless you can’t deal with lines without whining constantly/breaking into hives/flipping the fuck out.  They have a picture of one of their lines as a header on their website.  A line is going to happen here.  But for those who are willing to chat standing up for a bit, it will be well worth it.

The Madrona Tree – Arlington, MA

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The Madrona Tree

I’d already been here for sandwiches and their great, made-on-the-spot sodas, but this fall they started including a breakfast/brunch menu and so I had to return.  Seriously, this is the list of their standard sodas: blue-raspberry, raspberry-lime, lemon-lime, strawberry, strawberry-basil, and blackberry-mint.  When I went for brunch, their seasonal option was maple.  They had already earned a gold star with their drinks.

Red Sox French Toast

Red Sox French Toast

They have a good range of sweet and savory, and some very tasty twists on brunchy standards.  They’re all Boston or Arlington themed as is so common here, but regardless they are good.  The above contains apple, berry, cream cheese, and crumb topping.  Also, all french toast comes with real syrup, and both the toasts and the pancakes can be made gluten free.

A scramble, a.k.a. egg-containing pile of food

A scramble, a.k.a. egg-containing pile of food

Many of their dishes have a slight Mediterranean take on things due to the origins of the family who owns the place.  I think they do a good job of making this work.

This lured me away from french toast. So worth it.

This lured me away from french toast. So worth it.

At other times they just go crazy with their variations on breakfast themes (this is an eggs Benedict variant) and those are super tasty as well.  Those who prefer old standards will not be as happy here as those who want to branch out, but there are still options for the classic brunchers here and there.

It’s a little small so it fills up fast, but they do have a clip board so you can get in line on there instead of in person.  During the summer they double their seating with some lovely tables outside that also get service.

Chelsea Royal Diner – West Brattleboro, VT

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Chelsea Royal Diner

I’ll admit that I didn’t go too far out of my comfort zone when I went here: I saw French Toast Cinnamon Buns and there I stopped.  They were amazing.  Literally cinnamon buns cut in half and soaked in egg before being slapped on the griddle, they were every bit the sugar shock I was expecting.  The bacon was crispy and the maple syrup was, of course, fantastically real.  This was a special and may not be available now, but the omelets and poached eggs my companions had were also lovely.  Basically everything breakfast here gets a thumbs up from me.

So tasty I forgot to take a picture.

So tasty I forgot to take a picture.

There was very little wait when we were there, although it is a bit small so I imagine that happens during busier times.  The waitstaff was fast moving and attentive, and the coffee is full-on diner.  This place has been around for a while, but seems to have branched out and stepped up its food game from ten years ago.  Everything they serve is local and fresh, and they will usually tell you exactly what farm in what town it hails from.  There was a good mix of local regulars, families, and hip youngsters in attendance, and that speaks well of a place in my mind.  They also had quite the dessert menu, and I feel strongly I’ll have to come back to experience this.

In conclusion, if you’re even vaguely in the area, get your ass to the Chelsea Royal and brunch it up.

Seriously good food.

Seriously good food.

I Have Maple-Flavored Feelings

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There are a million things that can go wrong in the world, and many of them occur at brunch.  Long lines, small tables, and non-perfect food.  No one eats breakfast/lunch food out if it’s not going to be perfect, guys.  We can all make pancakes and sandwiches, can’t we?  If we wanted non-perfect food, we’d stay home.  We go out to brunch for the awesome.  For the amazing.  For the they-really-put-all-those-things-in-one-thing? turning out to be the BEST FOODSTUFF EVER.  Or maybe we just go out for really good eggs in the company of hipsters and kitsch.

Regardless, as a New Englander I feel strongly that the worst brunch faux pass is not having real maple syrup.

High fructose corn syrup with “maple flavoring” is NOT maple syrup people.  For some, it is a travesty because corn subsidies and it makes you fat or whatever else.  This is not my point.  Mine is that maple syrup is the nectar of the breakfast gods and I refuse to eat your dry-ass pancakes without some liquid nirvana making them palatable.  Real syrup upgrades BACON.  I come to brunch for many things, but first among them is the boiled-down blood of the sugar maple.  If I am not one step away from being a tree vampire, it is not brunch time.  That makes it lunch time, because at least with a grilled cheese sandwich I do not feel inherently betrayed by the lack of syrup.  I am also not a fan of paying extra for real syrup, but as long as it’s not five bucks I’ll do it because I know the good stuff costs.

Also: Grade B is the best grade and we other New England states have let Vermonters pull the maple wool over our eyes for too long.  And they know their syrup.  They want fake syrup passed off as the real thing to be a prosecutable offense.